My first mini disaster: Project BondoRocket

[Merlin]

HAHA so the forum told me to fuck off as I haven't posted here in 120+ days. Sounds like a good time for an update.

So the mini came back from blast in better shape than expected, but I did find what a shitpile the whole thing was. It was apparent that this was patched together and exported.











A little etch primer sprayed and off it goes back to the house.



So I started with the floors on this car. The floors were bashed in pretty good and they had been bronzed in spots which led me to believe I would find some serious trapped rust. I was right.


Door frames were also part of the ordeal. Couldn't do the floors without doing these at the same time.



Kinda shit at this. I ended up learning the hard way on this section. I have welded sheet metal before, but never on a curve. I also realized that I only need a big enough patch as needed. I also learned that the smaller the wire the better...

High build primer is my friend





Kinda start/stop on the doors. Not a hard one to do, but I had a few projects that took up some space in the garage for a while and I also revisited the rear subframe.


While working on the body, I also take the time to rebuild a few parts here and there. Thought that it would be a good time to start tearing the engine apart for prep on the dry deck and checking the bores out. Had to build a few tools on the fly (no pun). This little rugged fucker is available for loan for anyone wanting it.


Also, If you have every head me talk about this little joy, you know that everything is screwed up in some way. I couldn't even get lucky on the steering rack, even after I dropped $70 on parts to rebuild. Oh well, who's counting?



Speaking of motor upgrades, here is the turbo I planned on using (GT1752). I have since aquired a Saab unit (TB1749?) on a half off sale as I couldn't be bother for now to fix the 1752 unit. Specalist components just released their turbo mount for the K1100 head, so this got much easier.


I know that I posted it earlier, but this is the fuel mounting ring for my fuel pump setup. I bought a walbro pump and some fuel foam from summit, but have since stopped on this guy as I have had a chat with some plane builders and I am throwing around the idea of a carbon fiber fuel tank and am also having a hard time getting a hold of some 1/2" thick neoprene rubber for a gasket for the below design.



Speaking of carbon fiber, The boot lid came in after stripping two different metal ones and deciding they were not worth fixing. Got this from Rogue 7 and am by far impressed.



Oh and as always, I have been powdercoating at work on my spare time. I recently built a big-ass oven for powdercoating as we needed something to do wheels in and motorcycle frames. when I don't want to go out in the garage, I grab a part and clean/fix it and put it on the shelf. Right now, I have pedals from DSN classics, a brand new speedo with 0miles on the clock and an Original Speedwell oil/water split gauge.






I think that caches up show-and-tell for now.

[Jims5543]

*slow handclap*

Nice work! Hell of a project. I like the gas tank idea. Curious to see how that comes out.

[MiniDave]

This build reminds me of my E-Type Jag, the further I went the worse it got......I wound up replacing just about every piece of sheet metal from the middle of the doors down, all the floor etc.

Took me 4 years during which I didn't have a girlfriend/wife to bother me.....

[MtyMous]

Damn... I need those door handles.

[Merlin]

Damn... I need those door handles.

Send me yours and Ill get them done.

[MtyMous]

I need door handles and boot latch done. What does something like that cost?

[Merlin]

hows about free!

[MiniDave]

Merlin, if you haven't already bought a replacement, I think you can straighten that steering rack, it's not beyond use. All you need is to set it in a press and gently push it back a little at a time. If you don't have a press you could take it to a shop that works on big rear axles, they straighten stuff all the time.

Of course, a new rack is only about $130 plus shipping......

[Merlin]

There is a lot of crap that goes into a rebuild of that little rack and I was balancing price vs time. The biggest hindernace was the lack of  spare parts for rebuilding a steering rack. The pinion bearings are NLA and the retaining cups for the rack to tie rod ends were NLA. The bent rack was the last straw.

$100 later I had a mini spares 2.2 steering rack shipped with new everything.

Ill save the rest of the parts for another stupid-crazy project I have in mind.

[MiniDave]

If it's a left drive rack someone here was looking for the internals for another car project....

[Merlin]

I have RHD car, but I also have a LHD rack from a MK1 as well.

[Merlin]

Well, The weather is getting nice again...HaHa.

Working on the doors today. Trying to get them sorted and ready for skin. Need to find some dampener for the doors to put on the skin before I seal them up.

Any ideas?

I also decided to dump some cash. ordered the CF front end in paintable primer and the bonnet in exposed CF to match the boot.
Ordered up a nice batch of crap from Specialist Components as well for the K1100 head swap.

Looks like my ass is going to be back on Cherry Street for a few days to build up my cash flow.

[MtyMous]

Hey, let me know how you like the fit and finish of the boot and bonnet. I was talking with those guys about ordering a boot and bonnet for my car, but decided it was pretty low on the priority list. You're making me want to get them again. haha

[Merlin]

I got it from Jim Jones at Roguese7en, the same guy that did your dash.

I am very impressed with the boot lid. Ill install the hardware soon and see how it fits, but I think I may have a problem with the actual boot as it is pretty beat.

[MiniDave]

Man I'm learning about all sorts of new places to send money for Mini parts!

[Merlin]

Well its been a while. Better post what has been going on.

Been working on the mini as a whole. Lots of patching and more patching. Also bought an Eastwood tig welder for my birthday and have basically been going over every single weld I have ever made on this car and have redone it to get the penetration right. Yea, I'm OCD.



You might notice a little roll bar action. Got that on MM from a gentleman in Nebraska. Shipping was a cinch as my company happens to spend a lot of money on shipping equipment across the country and our shipping guy happened to have a truck coming back to Tulsa from Minot ND. A six-pack of beer later and it was on a flatbed of a semi heading to my house.


I have had the doors floating around the shop for a while and was inspired by the boys at Bad Obsession on adding the crashbars to my mini doors. You might notice that there is some very similar shit going on here.




Added some POR15 to the doors because I never want to do this project again. These doors were shit when I started with them that they were basically bondo. When I was patching them, I tig'd up more pinholes than I care to count. Thank Buddha that the tig torch makes this an easy process.



Added a little sound deadening to the doors. No sound engineer, but its probably overkill. Least the doors will close easily with all of this inertia.

[94touring]

Nicely done sir

[Merlin]

So I got one skin installed last night. Found that the skin was actually 1/4" longer on one end than the other making it a trapezoid of sorts.

After carefully measuring and confirming that the skin was the culprit and not the door frame, I carefully traced the correct position and bent the door skin flange back flat. I then proceeded to bend a new flange and hammer the whole thing on.

I can already see my OCD medication will need to be increased.

[MiniDave]

When I put new skins on my Jag doors, I had to build up the edges in some places by welding to match up with the door opening.....

Yours should turn out nicely!

Before I bought Buzz I looked at a bunch of classics, some local. One in particular was so bad as to be laughable - the doors had been "repaired" along the bottom edges with tape, then painted over!

The right fender had been replaced so poorly that it was almost funny, paint had orange peel so bad it made an orange look smooth! You could see light thru the lower A posts from the driver's seat.

The reason I mention it is that it was green with white stripes......

[Merlin]

aren't they all? BRG and white is the stereotypical mini color, followed by red and white.

[MiniDave]

I think that car was far worse than yours, but I wanted to be sure it wasn't the same car!

[Merlin]

I knew mine was shit when I saw it, but it wasn't that bad. I thought I knew what I was getting into, but it was far worse than expected.
My wife is ready for it to be done. She wants to go to the car shows in the fall... don't know which fall yet.

[94touring]

I've never given the door skins much thought.  I've never measured them either and they always fit the frame.  Wonder what some of those doors measure that I have sitting in there are.

[Merlin]

Cheap panels are cheap. I have come to realize that you have to check everything before. That's the difference in heritage panels vs knockoffs.

Doors look good now. Just need to get the floors done and ill go through the process of obsessing over them.

[MiniDave]

Ha! BTDT...... :-[